An analysis of how Russia has formulated and implemented its cyber strategy 2000-2020 makes it possible to identify critical moments, when the country's political leadership adjusted this strategy as well as coordinated and put the bureaucracy in motion. A number of actors in the Russian political system, especially the Federal Security Service and the Security Council apparatus, described the internet as a threat from the very beginning and called for more state control and reduced dependency on import of foreign technology. Many of these tenets were present in the Information Security Doctrine in 2000, but Russia was slow in coordinating policy. Many key measures were delayed or proved impossible to implement. However, from 2011 freedom on the internet became increasingly circumscribed. From 2014, this development gathered speed as actors inside the political system accepted the notion that information technology and the information it carried could constitute a national security threat. Apart from the forces that argued in favour of increased control and security measures, this study identifies a number of actors, such as domestic internet users, that championed another policy It also discusses other external forces, for example international technology development, that has forced the government to calibrate its cyber strategy.